André and Felicie Cailloux find themselves in the center of a tempest when the Union army sweeps into the city of New Orleans in 1862. Based on real events and real people, The Dixie Devil tells the remarkable story of Captain Cailloux and his wife, Felicie, as they try to protect their family from the forces swirling all around them.
Today, André and Felicie Cailloux are forgotten names, but André was the first black hero in the very first African-American regiment to see major action in the Civil War.
Included in this volatile mix is a heroic white priest, Claude Paschal Maistre, who takes a stand on behalf of the city’s free people of color. What’s more, strange things are happening, and they involve two real-life criminals straight from the colorful history of New Orleans—a six-foot, red-haired prostitute, who wields a double-bladed knife, and her boyfriend, a man with a chain and steel ball attached to his amputated arm.